SCO Stakes All On Tarantella

Following on the heels of an August 2 announcement to sell their Server Software and Professional Services Divisions to Caldera Systems, Inc. , longtime UNIX software developer The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. Tuesday announced plans to change the company name to Tarantella, Inc., the name of its remaining division and now its flagship software offering.

Doug Michels, CEO and president of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., will continue as CEO of the renamed company, and Mike Orr, current president of Tarantella, Inc. will assume the role of president and COO of Tarantella, Inc.

“This name change underscores the fact that we are concentrating our investments on Tarantella web-enabling software,” Michels said. “We’re sending an unambiguous signal that the company is firmly committed to growing the worldwide market for Tarantella. As Tarantella, Inc., there is no doubt about how serious we are regarding the opportunities we see ahead.”

SCO made its name with its UnixWare server environment, and its SCO OpenServer systems have been a popular operating system platform for small and medium sized businesses for over a decade. But these product lines have been acquired by Caldera, which will integrate them into their line of Linux software offerings, combining the robust scalability of the UNIX system with the low-cost, developer-accepted Linux operating system.

Tarantella is software that provides centralized deployment and management of server-based applications. Users can easily access their applications from Java technology enabled client devices, without the need for additional software to be installed on those devices.

Tarantella uses a three-tier architecture that integrates diverse application servers and diverse types of client with little or no disruption to the existing environment. Applications continue to run on existing servers, and many existing clients, such as PCs, UNIX workstations and network computers, can all be used.

Tarantella is gaining ground, but remains a distant second to Citrix Systems, Inc , whose two-tier MetaFrame software is the market leader.

“Tarantella, Inc. will act very much like a start-up, completely focused on the growth potential we foresee for Tarantella products,” Orr said. “That growth is fueled by the increasing business use of the Internet, the continued attractiveness of thin-client computing, and by the accelerating adoption of the ASP business model.”

The board of directors has unanimously approved the name change, which is now subject to the approval of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. stockholders, and regulatory agencies. The name change will take place as soon as practical after the shareholder vote, which is expected to occur in October 2000.